Cowboys vs Commanders preview: Fast facts about the Week 18 game

We’ve just about reached the end of the 2022 NFL regular season. The Dallas Cowboys have one more game to play, a contest on the road at the Washington Commanders. Dallas is still hoping to improve playoff seeding while Washington is just trying to get things over with after being eliminated from playoff contention last week.

The Cowboys are prepared to go all out to win the game. They may change tactics once games where they need help to improve their playoff position are not going their way, but expect the full Dallas starting team to play except those that are injured.

Meanwhile, Washington is already making changes, including inserting rookie Sam Howell as their starting quarterback. With a long list of injuries and a rookie quarterback playing for Washington, the gambling markets are strongly favoring the Cowboys. DraftKings Sportsbook has the Cowboys as 7-point favorites.

The Cowboys and Commanders have already squared off once this season. Way back in Week 4 the Cowboys, behind Cooper Rush, beat Washington 25-10. The two franchises have played each 125 times, two of which were playoff games. The Cowboys lead the all-time series 76-47-2, although Washington has both playoff wins (1972, 1982 NFC Championship games). Dallas has won the last three games in the series.

The Cowboys beat Washington earlier in the season with Cooper Rush as quarterback. Now, Dak Prescott is back and all stats are pretty impressive for the Cowboys signal caller except one - interceptions. Prescott is now tied for the most interceptions this season, even though he missed five game, with 14.

Outside of that, though, the Cowboys offense is rolling under Prescott. The team is second in the league for points scored per game at 28.8. The team has scored 461 points on the year. If they can score 19 points on Sunday, that will be the second-most in franchise history, trailing only last season’s 530. That’s an impressive two-year stretch for Prescott, Kellen Moore and others.

Prescott could also set a personal record in a very important category on Sunday, completion percentage. He currently has a 69.2% completion rate and that would top his previous career high set in 2021 of 68.8%. In 10 games versus Washington, Prescott has a 67.9% completion rate and that includes 2,407 yards and 18 touchdowns.

Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson is also looking to set a personal record for the franchise. He currently leads all defensive backs in the NFL with five sacks. If he gets one more, he will pass Bill Bates’ 1984 record for sacks by a Cowboys’ defensive back.

Tony Pollard currently has 988 rushing yards, needing only 12 yards to reach 1,000 on the season. That's significant considering how much he and Ezekiel Elliot share carries. He also needs only one rushing touchdown to reach 10 on the season. Elliott already has 12, so if that happens they would be the first duo of Cowboys running backs to reach the 10 rushing touchdown mark in a season. The last time two running backs on the same team each had 10 rushing touchdowns in the same season was 2008, when DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart did it for Carolina.

CeeDee Lamb needs nine catches in the game to match Michael Irvin’s franchise record of 111 catches in a season set in 1995.

The Cowboys are tops in the league with a +11 turnover margin, Part of that has been their league-high 20 forced fumbles, the most by a Dallas defense since 1994. They have recovered 17 of them. The Commanders are 27th in turnover margin with a -6 mark. With the decision to start rookie QB Sam Howell, the Cowboys might be able to feast in this category during the game.